Corporeal blood gas changes in accordance with duration of the prolonged erection which developed after intracorporeal pharmacotherapy with papaverine and phentolamine were investigated in 62 impotence patients. The picture of the corporeal blood
taken
from 15 psychogenic impotence patients(a control group) at 10 minutes after intracavernous injection, when they showd full erections, was arterial but there was pCO2 rise and pH drop compared to that of femoral artery blood taken simultaneously.
As
erection lasted longer, significant gas changes of the cavernous blood began to appear(p<0.0001) ; increase in pCO2 and decrease in pO2 from 4 hours, decrease in pH from 5 hours, and decrease in O2 saturation from 6 hours. Erections lasting for
more
than 16 hours showed significantly more severe hypoxia(p<0.05).
Therefore, to prevent hypoxia and metabolic acidosis, drug-induced erection should not be prolonged beyond 4 hours.
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